1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to docking of aircraft. More particularly, the invention relates to a system and method for docking aerodynamic lifting structures of different aircraft together at the tips of the respective aerodynamic lifting structures.
2. Background Art
Coupling aircraft together at their respective wing tips has long been recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art as providing several unique advantages for various mission scenarios. Previous attempts to couple aircraft, however, have been challenging and have often met in disaster. One prior art example attempted to couple fighter aircraft to a bomber at their wing tips in order to provide combat air support when the bomber was delivering their payload. In that ill-fated attempt, a defective autopilot caused the fighter aircraft to flip over and collide with the bomber, with subsequent loss of life and aircraft.
Regardless of the relative size of the two or more aircraft that are attempting to dock via their wing tips, the wing tip vortices that exist substantially prevent the two (or more) aircraft from approaching each other in a stable manner; the vortices from a first aircraft will affect the stability of the second aircraft if the second one gets too close to the wing tip area, and visa versa. FIG. 7 illustrates wing tip vortices generated at the wing tip areas of two aircraft. Under these conditions, i.e., with wing tip vortices, docking two (or more) aircraft at their wing tips becomes very difficult.
Thus, a need exists for a system and method to dock aerodynamic lifting structures of different aircraft together at the tips of the respective aerodynamic lifting structures.